#1
|
|||
|
|||
Trouble's Coming
Someone is going to be in trouble. Not me though.
It comes from my being the resident English speaker on duty as it were. I was waiting around at the bike shop for a meeting with the owner. She was a bit late, the mechanics were too busy for talking, and I really didn't have anything to do. Wander upstairs. Wander downstairs. Wander upstairs. Take a look at some of the shiny new goodies in the cabinet of very small and very expensive items. There's a Selle Italia saddle in there that, if I weren't about to go on long distance tour I'd been buying for my race bike. I'd waited months for this saddle to come in. It was always backordered. And now that's it's in stock I'm about to head out on my tour bike. Race bike toys will just have to wait for the next time I'm racing. Next to my intended saddle there was another one. Full carbon. Scary light. Beautiful in the way a Porsche is beautiful. I could purchase it but I won't. It wouldn't match the rider or her race bike. I'm just not that good. Little cardboard booklet tied to the saddle rails with string. Bike shop owner not here yet. At home I read cereal boxes. Here I read instruction booklets attached to carbon fiber saddles. I read it through. I read it through again. And a third time. How could this be? This is an American brand, surely an American brand wouldn't have that many or that kind of typographical error ... especially not one that's in the business of selling very very _very_ expensive items, with this being an especially expensive representative of that brand's tendency to be expensive. I hear the bike shop owner downstairs and put the saddle down. On my way downstairs I walk past the large poster exhorting people in Chinese not to buy counterfeit or gray market goods. It was put out by Shimano Shanghai as part of the shop-in-shop partnership thing. Sitting down with her in the back of the shop I can see a row of Discovery Channel team jerseys that cost over USD100 apiece. Next to them is one that looks more or less like the others with a large sign on it "Counterfeit Product, Not For Sale". I already know that if I look at it up close it will say UCI Europe Tour instead of UCI Pro Tour and that I can find four or five other insignificant places where it doesn't quite pass muster. There are other things to talk about. It doesn't occur to me to mention what I saw upstairs. However, an hour later, I'm on the way to dinner with them and I'm looking at the English on the back of the ID badge identifying the manager of the bike shop as a torch bearer for the relay. It's perfect. I comment on the perfection of the English, and then, because it had stuck in my mind as being strange that the English on the tag wasn't right I mentioned that. What do I mean the English isn't right? I mean not right. I mean one sentence printed twice. I mean another sentence in the wrong place. I mean a sentence that ends in mid-word. That's very strange. A suggestion is made that perhaps I shouldn't hold local goods up to the same level of English scrutiny that I hold foreign products up to. After all, everyone in the car knows that English on local products is there mostly as decoration. By the way, what did I see this tag on? I tell them. I've known the bike shop owner for nearly three years now and I've never before seen her look so angry. She has four bike shops in two cities. She's also the person who brings in most of the mid-end stuff for six more partner shops in another five cities. She provides all the rental bikes and their maintenance packages to all of the five star resorts in the province. Someone in going to be in trouble. Big trouble. I don't know who the someone is but whoever they are I'd hate to be them. In fact, right now, until an explanation is found for the incorrect English on that particular tag I'd hate to be in the import department of any company that sells expensive bike goods in China. -M |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Coming to a B&Q near you | Tony Raven[_3_] | UK | 4 | August 4th 07 02:38 PM |
coming soon enough | trialsfreak13 | Unicycling | 7 | February 15th 06 03:28 AM |
We should have seen this coming... | [email protected] | Racing | 17 | October 15th 05 08:02 PM |
THE SECOND COMING _s | Sir Jean-žaul Turcaud | Australia | 0 | December 16th 04 08:35 AM |
Coming to Oz! | Dominic Sansom | Australia | 10 | April 12th 04 03:41 AM |